Standing atop a solitary hill a figure in a black cloak stood like a mountain that touched the heavens, impaled by dozens of weapons as blood kept on gushing out of his wounds like a stream of river.
With his breath somewhat warm and his skin drenched with cold sweat and red blood, he gazed before him at the dozen or so figures who stood all wounded looking at him with hate, fear, excitement, and awe in their eyes.
*Koff* *Koff*
The figure in black coughed out another mouthful of blood and looked up at the cloudy sky, the grey clouds full of sorrow reflected in his somewhat dim eyes.
'What a cloudy day…'
The figure in black thought as he shook his head in dismissal of his own fate and looked back at the ones standing before him.
He said nothing.
But even so, just his gaze was more than enough to send shivers down the spine of anyone who looked at him.
Out of the dozen or so people standing in opposition to him, a woman in her early twenties came forward.
Surprisingly she didn't have even a single wound or scratch on her.
"Fuyuki… no, Minamoto-sensei… I…"
She tried to talk but just as she was about to say her words the black-cloaked figure gestured for her to stop.
"It's fine, Sayu, it's… fine. I guess… I deserved it."
"For someone like me with strength but no authority or backing, I am sure that I deserved it", he said in an almost indifferent tone, as if he was saying what was in the mind of everyone present there not what he himself believed.
"I never thought… I never thought that I, Fuyuki Minamoto, the first one to become a 'Swordmaster' at just the age of 16 and gain the title of 'Strongest under the heavens' at the age of 20, will die in such a way."
"Betrayed by the ones I cherished, and backstabbed by the one I loved the most", he said as he looked at the woman who spoke just a few moments ago, "I guess, this is the way I will go, take care of yourself, all of you. I shall wait for you… in hell"
The light in his eyes dimmed, as his breathing came to a halt.
Strongest under the heavens, Fuyuki Minamoto died a tragic death, backstabbed by his soon-to-be wife and ganged up by his peers whom he once considered his friends.
***
300 years later.
"Ugh…"
Holding his head, a boy had his face pressed against a desk as a groan slipped past his mouth.
With his breathing somewhat rigged and his face drenched with sweat he slowly opened his eyes.
He looked around the place, only to find himself surrounded by kids, all of them around 8-9 years of age.
'Where am I? I am sure this isn't hell.'
He thought when suddenly a possibility passed his somewhat strained mind.
'Don't tell me… have I been… reincarnated!?'
'But how!?'
With his breath quickened he quickly examined himself, two short and somewhat fluffy hands, a sky-blue-colored garb, and extremely smooth skin. He couldn't believe that it was him for a second.
The boy was in the midst of examining himself as he kept on touching his arms and legs when suddenly something came flying out of his way.
It was a piece of chalk.
Perhaps by intuition or by the experiences he had gathered in his past life, the moment the chalk was about to hit him, the boy ducked in and dodged it.
"Gah!"
But sigh… it hit the face of some other guy who was sitting behind him.
Briefly glancing backward at the poor guy who was rubbing his head that was throbbing in pain, the boy looked ahead of him, his eyes shining with anger as he glared at the one who threw the chalk.
Looking at the one who threw the chalk, a man probably in his mid-twenties appeared before him wearing a dark green kimono with black stripes, the word, 'Teacher', written on the left side of his chest.
'Don't tell me, this is… a school?'
"Fuyuki Hayashi, what were you doing just now, eh? Come here and materialize your inner energy", the man wearing the robe pointed his finger at the boy and called him in front of the entire class.
'So, this place is a school…'
'Shit! Why am I at a school of all places!? Ah! this is even worse than hell!'
'And it seems like my name is Fuyuki again, hah? Well, it's the same as it was in my previous life. '
With thoughts like that Fuyuki walked towards the teaching platform, garnering the attention of everyone he passed along the way.
Some looked at him with disgust while others giggled at him with ridiculing expressions on their faces.
Not minding them one bit, Fuyuki just shook his head in dismissal and walked towards the podium.
Reaching it, he looked up at the teacher, gave him a nod, and then stood on the stage with a wooden sword in his hand.
'Well, whatever, even if this is a school, I doubt anyone here would ever be able to beat me, whether it is in terms of talent or strength.'
'Oh god, for you to make me so special, I must have been an angel or something in one of my past lives.'
'Thanks for giving me a second chance, though, I will make sure I use it to thoroughly humiliate others, fufu.'
Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself.
'Here goes nothing.'
With a concentrated mind, Fuyuki pinpointed his mental energy at a space just below his solar plexus.
Upon doing so, a bundle of thread-like substances came into his view.
Carefully picking one of them using his mental energy, Fuyuki stretched the thread and connected it with his bloodstream, and his body started radiating with a burst of energy.
White aura covered him from head to toe.
'Heh! For him to ask something so easy of me, what kind of fool does he think I am, hah?'
'Aaah! I can't wait to see his stupefied expression when he comes to learn that someone like me, an 8-9-year-old child can do something so difficult!'
'In my previous life, it took around 15-16 years on average for people to learn how to materialize their auras.'
Opening his eyes, Fuyuki looked around himself, probably to take a look at the other's expressions, but upon seeing their faces he found something amiss.
'Why isn't anyone surprised!? I have done an almost impossible thing, haven't I? Then why do they look so indifferent?'
Confused by their reactions Fuyuki desperately tried to find a reason for their dry expressions but couldn't come up with anything.
Then he looked at his teacher who was looking at him with a somewhat surprised face.
'Looks like he is the only one who was able to understand my skill, ha? Well, that makes sense, after all these brats are still nothing but amateurs, maybe even less than that, it's only natural for them to be not able to understand my skill.'
Fuyuki kept on looking at the teacher with his eyes full of pride and joy.
He was waiting for the teacher to give him some compliment, but no compliment came his way, rather the teacher's expression only contorted gradually to become more and more ugly.
"And what about the rest?", the teacher said, his voice sounding harsher than before.
'The rest? Was I supposed to do something else as well?'
"Don't tell me you don't know about it? Aaah… why do I always get problem kids like you in my class? But first of all, Fuyuki, tell me, who taught you that materialization technique?", the teacher asked Fuyuki with scrutinizing expression on his face.
"I…I made it myself", Fuyuki replied honestly.
Looking at Fuyuki for a few more seconds, the teacher shook his head.
"Don't use that materialization technique from now on, understand?"
His voice sounded a bit concerned and worried for Fuyuki.
'Why is he asking me to not use this technique, could it be that it is so wonderful that I might be in trouble if I use it in front of others?'
'Hmm… now that I think about it, it actually makes sense, after all, I did use to be an overlord of some sort and any technique made by me couldn't be anything but magnificent.'
'Yep! Now that totally makes sense! What a great guy he is! I would've made friends with him if he were my age! At least he would be way better than those conniving bastards who sent me to my death!'
Gritting his teeth in anger at the sudden remembering of his enemies, Fuyuki's eyes shone with bloodlust.
"After all, that technique of yours is nothing but garbage"
'Yes, you are right, I know that technique is the best… huh? '
'Did he... just say what I think he said?'
'No, there's no way he said something like that!'
Perhaps confused by the words his teacher spoke Fuyuki tried to reconfirm them,
"Sir, could you please repeat what you just said?", his voice sounded rather impatient as he asked this question.
Rolling his eyes back, the teacher gave Fuyuki a frustrated glance.
"I said that, YOUR. TECHNIQUE. WAS. GARBAGE!", he said while shouting as his voice resounded throughout the hall.
Baffled by the teacher's words Fuyuki tried to retort, "B-but why!? What's wrong with this magnificent technique!?"
"Magnificent? Magnificent!? That technique was just a waste of time and energy!? Wait, I will show you once again how to actually materialize your energy!", his teacher said, his voice sounding irritated and frustrated as if he had just eaten shit or something.
"Good, go on!", Fuyuki also didn't back down as he openly challenged his teacher.
The mood in the room tensed as even the children who had been gossiping and laughing just a moment ago stopped and looked at the teacher with extreme amounts of concentration.
Fuyuki was the same, he also kept on looking at the teacher with an extremely serious expression. He could accept anything but anyone slandering his life's work!
After all, it had taken him a large amount of time and hard work to develop that technique. Someone so casually calling it garbage was the last thing that someone like Fuyuki, the overlord of the realm would want to hear.
Deep down what he wanted the most was to have a duel to the death with the one who slandered his technique but he knew full well that he wouldn't stand a chance against him as right now he was nothing but a kid.
The teacher closed his eyes for a moment and faced the students, calming his breath he once again opened his eyes, and then whoosh.
His entire body got covered in a white aura that was radiating pure energy.
This process took less than half of the time as Fuyuki's.
'Well, he was faster than me, but so what? It was my first time performing that technique in this new body, it's not like I could have mastered it from the start.'
But Fuyuki still felt that it was wrong to call his technique flawed and garbage has given that his teacher didn't perform much better than him.
He was about to say something when his teacher interrupted him.
"These were the first two steps of materialization, initialization, and the comprehension of energy, now here comes the third, last, and probably the most important step."
'Eh? There was a third step?'
"Look carefully", bringing his attention back to himself, the teacher stretched two of his fingers and then,
*Shuu*
With a sharp sound, a sword made up of pure energy materialized in his hand!
"You see Fuyuki, that technique of yours was garbage because instead of using your energy vessels you used your energy core located at your solar plexus, that's why you weren't able to manipulate your energy too much."
"That technique of yours, it was discovered by one of the founders of energy manipulation Fuyuki Minamoto around 300 years ago, although I respect your desire to follow the footsteps of great men like him, but if you look at it objectively, in today's times he would be nothing but a third-rate trash who uses primitive techniques like that. You should instead…."
'Third-rate trash?'
'I am nothing but a piece of trash? '
'Me? The great overlord? I am only some third-rated trash?'
The teacher kept on speaking, as for Fuyuki, he was already dead.
His soul died when words such as 'third-rate' and 'garbage' were spoken about him and he wasn't even able to say or do anything.
"And by doing this you will surely be able to become better."
'Trash…? Huh? Did he just say that I will be able to improve?'
'Yes! I mean I found that technique so long ago so it was obvious for it to go out of date sooner or later.'
'Yes! I knew that I would be able to become better!'
'But what did he say before that?'
'I was so immersed in my thoughts that I wasn't even able to listen to him.'
'Well, whatever, I guess I will just ask him again.'
"Teacher… uhm could you please repeat what you just said? I wasn't able to understand something?", Fuyuki asked his teacher in a sweet tone filled with awe and respect.
Taken aback by his sudden change in behavior, his teacher blinked a few before finally gaining back his composure and looking at Fuyuki with a pleased smile on his face.
"Okay, but what part of it did you not understand?", he said with his eyes fixated on Fuyuki.
"Uh… ev-ev-….", Fuyuki stumbled with his words a bit.
"Yeah, go ahead, go ahead", but his teacher tried to help him move forward as he encouraged him to speak about his problem.
Fuyuki, perhaps gaining a bit of confidence, straightened his back and looked at his teacher with a serious expression on his face.
"Everything, I didn't understand a thing"
…
…
"Everything?"
"Yes"
A moment later Fuyuki found himself thrown out of the classroom.
"Guh!!!"
"Fuyuki Hayashi, I've had enough of your jokes! Go stand outside and think back on your mistakes!!!"
***
Standing outside the classroom, Fuyuki looked at a distant cloud floating in the sky.
'It has been 300 years since I died, hah?'
'I guess things have changed a lot, well, it only makes sense for them to change, after all, my successors wouldn't be so foolish as to keep on only using my techniques and never develop theirs.'
'That's why, I feel grateful, with a new environment where the parameters of strength have changed so much, I know I will surely enjoy my journey to become the strongest.'
Fuyuki thought as his mind finally felt at peace at the prospect of getting stronger, but this peaceful feeling didn't last for too long as an annoying voice just snapped him out of his dream.
"You sure a piece of trash, aren't you?"
Hearing these harsh words Fuyuki looked to his left only to find another boy looking at him with an expression full of pity.
"Don't worry, when I will become the Shogun, I will make you my left-hand man"